Weekly Readings

Adab & Devotion

This week turn from our exploration of adab, to explore the closely related theme of
devotion This week!s reading contains one reading from the "asnavi on the theme of
adab, and another on the theme of devotion, alongside a short personal account
#n working with these texts, we suggest this four step approach$
Read this selection, out loud if possible, seven times
Dwell upon the phrase or sentence that touches you
Ask yourself what relevance or application this has to yourself
%inally, sit in the afterglow of these re&ections and open yourself to whatever
new insight or message the Divine might have for you
Text 1: Adab
'(ven though you)re not e*uipped,
keep searching$
e*uipment isn)t necessary on the way to the +ord
Whoever you see engaged in search,
become her friend and cast your head in front of her,
for choosing to be a neighbour of seekers,
you become one yourself, protected by con*uerors,
you will yourself learn to con*uer
#f an ant seeks the rank of -olomon,
don)t smile contemptuously upon its *uest
(verything you possess of skill, and wealth and handicraft,
wasn)t it .rst merely a thought and a *uest/!
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Text 2: Devotion
'Whatever it is you wish to marry,
go, absorb yourself in that beloved,
assume its shape and *ualities
#f you wish for the light, prepare yourself
to receive it, if you wish to be far from 8od,
nourish your egoism and drive yourself away
#f you wish to .nd a way out of this ruined prison,
don)t turn your head away from the 9eloved,
but bow in worship and draw near!
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Devotion
Rahima "c=ullough
This week our theme is devotion The -u. path is a path of devotion At .rst
glance this seems like a simple concept We hear that someone is >devoted to
their family,? or >devoted to their sport@ Aerhaps we have listened to 0and
even sung along with7 Blivia Cewton Dohn singing >hopelessly devoted to you?
9ut what does it mean to practice devotion/ Bne dictionary de.nes devotion
as the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal? #n another, to be
devoted is >to give all of something, especially your time, eEort or love, or
yourself, to something you believe in or to a person? -o devotion means
giving, giving deeply, loyally and ardently, from the heart A -u. wishes to
give herself to the #n.nite, to 8od, to her or his highest human potentialities
We may believe we are devoted to the path and to 8od, do our daily priorities
support this belief/ To what or to whom are we actually devoted, at this time in
our life/ When we look at how we spend our time, and how our priorities
manifest during our day, what can we see about the actual obFects of our
devotion/ We are also inundated the demands of family, work and the
distractions of life in our society Devotion is not only measured by the
amount of time we spend in prayer and meditation or studying sacred scripture
and the writings of the masters, it also manifests itself in how we ful.ll our
obligations Bur tradition does not call for forsaking the world, rather that we
integrate our spirituality, our devotion into our everyday activities =an #
remember my -ustainer as # clean the bathroom or change a dirty diaper/ =an
# manifest compassion and forgiveness while dealing with an angry co5worker
or diGcult relationship/ Do # perform my work beautifully and with attention
regardless of how mundane/ Bne step toward true spiritual devotion is simply
taking inventory to see where our devotion currently lies and if it manifests in
all aspects of our lives
%or some of us that answer may be yes 9ut even for the most devoted
among us, we need be constantly working to purify our devotion The ego can
love and be devoted to something outside itself but this is a conditional love
and devotion The ego can consciously or unconsciously become the real obFect
of devotion H cloaked in devotion to 8od Aerhaps we become attached to our
spiritual work because of how it feeds our ego We feel pious, we experience a
spiritual high, we receive attention or we satisfy a sense of duty #f our ego is
not grati.ed with the results of our spiritual work, we give up
The capacity for the deepest level of devotion is given to us by 8race The
work on this path is to transform our ego, to purify our love and devotion The
only motivation in true devotion is love, and +ove ultimately comes to us from
the Divine "ay we be able to grow in the capacity to give ourselves
completely in love, to +ove, in true devotion